This book was more thought provoking than anticipated and I appreciated the introspection. 

Going into it, I was expecting a light adventure novel with a cat leading a young boy into fantasy worlds. In hindsight, this is a translated Japanese novel, so I should have expected a deeper level to it as I’ve found Japanese novels tend towards more philosophical content. 

In this instance, it was delving into the meaning of loving books, which I enjoyed pondering and seeing how the MC handled the arguments. The MC faces someone who uses his books for shelf trophies and only reads them once, someone who cuts books up to make them shorter and quicker to read, and someone in publishing who only publishes the high demand novels that make money.  They argue about the value of a book - both monetary and intangible. The core plot of the book was about what it means to “love books”. How do you show a love of books? What is the meaning of loving a book? And where is there value in loving books?

As someone who would definitely say she loves books, I found the idea of this fascinating, especially as the year is winding down and we are all talking about whether we met our reading goals this year and are planning for the next. 

Highly recommend this easy yet thought provoking read. It’s got a little adventure, a little romance, and a lot of book philosophy.